Music in General

Music makes me think. Music can change my mood fairly quickly. It can bring me to tears of joy, can help me escape sadness or push me into a deep depression. Foremost, it is a blessing to me because I can use it as an emotional tool to stay happy.

I’ve been moved by music for as long as I can remember.

I’ve always been in awe of people that could sing or play an instrument.

I’ll never be a good musician, but I’ll always celebrate every correct note that I play.

I find the politics of entertainment interesting; how being at the right place at the right time or knowing the right person makes all the difference. How a professional studio musician can be paid union scale for performing a piece of music that will bring joy to someone for the rest of their life but some football player can make a million dollars a year for nothing.

Music Genre

I have favorite pieces that fall into almost every major genre, however I favor New-Age, Traditional, Folk and praise music. I don’t consider any of the “hate” genre’s as music at all.

A few of my favorite musicians

My musical experience

One day in 1978 while driving down Dewey Avenue in Rochester I was listening to Herb Alpert on the radio. I stopped at the traffic light at the corner of Driving Park Avenue. I loved the style of Herb and wondered if someone like me could ever learn to play the trumpet. After-all, I had never read sheet music or played any instrument and thought of myself as a nitwit. I looked over and I was in Front of Duke Spinner’s Music Shoppe (1964-1999). Why not?

I parked out front and went inside. An elderly gentleman approached me, introducing himself as Professor Vincent Farga. I explained to him that I was curious as to whether or not I could learn to play the trumpet. He asked “Do you have all your teeth?”. I told him that I did. He replied “Get a trumpet and come back at 5:00”. I took lessons from Professor Farga every week for about a year. After that I took lessons from Dr. Dennis Fleischer at the University of Rochester for several more years. Dennis eventually hooked me up with the Irondequoit Community Band, one of the many groups that he performed with. I stayed with the band for 30+ years, never being a great player but loving the opportunity to perform and the comradery of the band. I made several close friendships there.

I am presently an intermediate player of the chromatic harmonica, beginner player of the guitar, bass guitar and keyboard, and am seeking an opportunity to join some sort of an ensemble. I dabble in recording my playing, creating and editing midi files and using a variety of software to convert scores to midi files, and vice versa.